City Index, the global CFD and FX broker, was established in the United Kingdom in 1983 which means that it possesses over 30 years of experience in providing traders with CFDs and spread-betting derivatives. In 2015, City Index was acquired by GAIN Capital Holdings which resulted in making City Index, one of the top multi-asset brokers.
At present, City Index has seen exponential growth and has offices all around the world in locations such as London, Dubai, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, among others. Primarily, City Index is focused on catering to the customers in the UK, Australia, Singapore, and the Middle East.
Pros
- The fee for Forex trading is very low
- The process of account opening is seamless
- Research tools available on the network are more than adequate
- It has cryptocurrency coverage
- Multiple trading platforms, all with considerable benefits
Cons
- The product portfolio at City index is limited
- The fee for stock CFD is high
- The desktop platform is non-user-friendly
- There is also a fee charged on inactivity
- Doesn’t accept traders from the US
Pricing
There are zero commissions for spread betting and CFD trading but there is minimum equity CFD commission of $25.
For forex trading, EUR/USD is as low as 0.5 pips. Overall, fixed spreads and prices are according to the industry norm.
Coming to the trading fee, City Index offers a transparent system in terms of additional charges. There is a monthly inactivity fee of £12 if the account has not been used for more than 12 months.
There is also a small financing charge on bitcoin exposure if the position is held overnight.
Security
City Index is licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority(FCA). It is also in compliance with the European Securities and Market Authority(ESMA) therefore, the users of City Index enjoy negative balance protection as well as the coverage of up to £50,000 provided by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). City Index is publicly traded, authorised by three tier-1 regulators (high trust), zero tier-2 regulators (average trust), and one tier-3 regulator (low trust). The tier-1 regulators include the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the Financial Conduct Authority(FCA).
All customer’s funds are kept in segregated tier 1 bank accounts. Modern encryption technology is used to provide an additional level of security for the user data and information.
In addition to this, the users can also reap the benefit of the guaranteed stop-loss protection offered by City Index. This protection is available for premium as well as conditional orders on the trading platform. Two-factor authentication is also present as an additional security measure for the Singapore-based clients of City Index while the same feature is absent in the UK.
Investment Options
City Index offers one of the most comprehensive sets of options for investment. As many as 65 currency pairs are available to the users along with Forex spot trading. As for the CFDs, almost 4500 are available at City Index and the cryptocurrency trading is also available as CFD. In addition to this, City Index also offers social trading. Like other brokers in the UK, City Index offers spread-betting across its available markets, providing tax efficiencies for UK residents, compared to CFDs.
City Index offers CFD contracts the following commodities and products –
Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum in Metals; US Crude Oil, UK Crude Oil, Sugar No. 11, Coffee, Natural Gas in Commodities; UK Long Gilt, Euro Bobl, US T-Bond, US T-Note in Bonds; Short Sterling 3 month, Eurodollar, Euribor 3 month in Interest Rates; and UK 100, Wall Street, Germany 30, Australia 200 in Options.
Features
There are different trading platforms available to the customers of City Index mentioned below:
1. Advantage Web
It is a web-based trading platform that requires no installation. It offers nine pre-built workspace screens or the user can also customise the layout as per his needs. Soe considerable features of Advantage web are one-click trading, heat map to keep up with market updates, risk management tools, over 80 technical indicators, and personalised watchlists. Other functions commonly found on most websites such as historical data feeds, setting guaranteed and trailing stop losses, as well as different types of market orders are also available.
2. Web Trader
Released in late 2018, Web Trader is the new platform by City Index. Being new, it provides significant improvements over the previous platforms such as better performance, better trading experience, and more reliability. It delivers a fully customisable trading workspace offering personalisation and customizability. Some features available on Web Trader are advanced charts, including custom indicators and precision drawing tools, Intelligent trading tools including smarter trade tickets and advanced risk management tools, curated market information including detailed market analysis to identify trading opportunities.
3. AT Pro
Quenching the thirst of the experienced traders, AT Pro is the sophisticated platform by City Index. It offers backtesting as well as trading signals that can clearly display all possible entry and exit points for a trade. Moreover, with the AT Pro’s development studio, a user can build his own unique trading template.
4. MetaTrader 4
This is the industry standard of City Index. Advanced charting package, a plethora of technical indicators and customisability options make it a suitable platform for all traders. Automated trading is also available through the supported APIs.
Coming to the Mobile application, City Index provides mobile versions for iOS and Android. The mobile platform has easy synchronization which is a significant feature. However, when compared to the desktop application, the mobile application has relatively fewer features and limited customization. Apart from this, there are well-organized menus and the users can perform various functionalities such as set custom price alerts, build watch lists, chat with customer service, use basic charting, and more.
Research
The research available on City Index is one of the top reasons for its popularity. The in-house analysts providing daily market outlooks and updates through videos, webinars, and a tag-based news page proves to be an adequate source of research for all traders.
In addition to this, the platform also offers dozens of trading ideas and opportunities which are listed on the site and in-platform. However, only a portion of this content is available for free while some content is available through paid subscriptions.
Payment options
Depositing funds to the City Index account can be done through the following three ways:
- Debit cards
- Credit cards
- Bank wire transfer
Same methods are available for the withdrawal of money through the platform.
The minimum withdrawal amount is £50/ $50 or the remaining account balance (whichever is lowest). There is also a limit on maximum withdrawal per transaction which is £20,000/$20,000. The time taken by international withdrawals to complete is usually 2 to 3 working days while the domestic withdrawals can complete in one or two working days.
If a user wants to get the payment on the same day using a CHAPS bank transfer, a fee of £25 is applicable.
Accounts
The standard account at City Index requires a minimum deposit of £100/$100 followed by £25/$25 for subsequent deposits. There are zero commissions on spread betting and CFDs, aside from equity CFDs.
A VIP account is also available that offers a multitude of benefits such as:
- Flexible margin rates
- Interest paid on cash balances
- Invites to exclusive VIP events
- Improved rates of trade execution
- A senior sales trader on-hand 24 hours a day
However, in order to qualify for a VIP account, approval from the City Index VIP team is needed.
Lastly, City Index also offers Demo Accounts where a user can learn and practice day trading. Two demo accounts are available the MT4 and the standard City Index demo account.
The MT4 demo account is available for 12 weeks and includes £10,000 virtual cash whereas the standard City Index demo account gives unlimited access to the City Index trading platform and £2,500 in virtual cash.
Customer Service
Customer service by City Index is one of the best. The support is available to the user all day long on the weekdays via phone and email.
The helpline numbers are available on their website, shown according to the location. With the helpline numbers, you can get assistance with simple tasks such as forgotten username and passwords as well as the assistance with more complex problems such as the website is down, financing charges, financial statements, withdrawal problems, as well as technical issues.
The languages in which the support is available are English, Spanish, German, Polish, Arabic, and Chinese.
There is also a page on the website, Help and Support, which is capable of answering most of the queries.
